The Arts In Berwick -- Visual Arts -- Posters
Into the 1920s

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One of the local victims of the First World War had been R.C. Clements, a schoolteacher from Spittal who produced some excellent travel posters before the conflict. A 1913 poster shows a jolly old couple building sandcastles. It is a modern uncluttered design, comparing well with John Hassall's famous 1908 'Skegness is So Bracing' poster.

But the great age of railway posters came after the war. After the 1923 amalgamations most railway companies employed the best graphic artists to produce memorable images. The L.N.E.R sought to rebrand their company with an overall style for all publicity material. An idea familiar today but radical then. Several poster artists signed exclusive contracts.

One of these was Frank Mason (1876-1965). He was fond of coastal and marine subjects and this was particularly useful for his posters featuring Berwick. The Borough Museum has also a couple of his watercolours of Bamburgh, completed while on a sailing holiday.

Bamburgh also featured in a poster by Tom Purvis (1888-1957), one of the most influential poster designers of the 1930s. Born in Bristol, he studied art with Sickert and Degas and established a new, fresh, uncluttered line for LNER posters. The highpoint of his work on Berwick is his streamlined image of the 1936 Coronation express hurling across the Royal Border Bridge. After the Second War, Purvis turned to religious paintings.